whether it's the collectivity of, like, "hey, listen, we all came out and helped during hurricane sandy." if it's the collectivity of, "listen, i come from this community. in this community we have pride. in this community we try to help each other." i think that there's always been a number of stories that contest and work against this idea of this sort of crazy individualism in america. and both have always been present. and i think that there's a great calling. there's a great combat between the two of them. and i guess part of me thinks that collectivity and helping your society and being civic-mindedness is as much a part of what it means to be an american as being this big peak winner, this peak person at the top. >> but that former story's not the one we've been hearing punctuated or accentuated the last 40 years, right? >> well, no, i mean, i think we hear it in different places. but do we hear it with the biggest megaphone? no. the biggest megaphones want to talk about the person on top. they want to talk about the hero, the winner. but the little megaphones, you're in a librar